‘Game Of Thrones’ Director Describes Sunday’s ‘Battle Of Winterfell’ Episode As “Survival Horror”

If you’re a fan of epic battles, you are in for a treat this weekend. Not only do you get to see the Avengers take on Thanos once again in ‘Endgame,’ but you also get the chance to watch the Starks defend Winterfell from the army of the dead in the new episode of “Game of Thrones.” As the meme dictates, it’s perilous time to have the last name Stark.

And in a new interview with EW, the director of the upcoming episode of ‘Thrones’ took time to explain just what makes this entry so special…and grueling. After reading the quotes below, you’re probably going to want to make sure director Miguel Sapochnik is doing okay because it appears that he put everything he had into the production of this massive battle.

“What I really like about [episodes] 3, 4, and 5 is they’re a complete piece with a beginning middle and end,” said the director. “I try to approach all these [episodes] like they’re one. Like in season 6, [episodes 9 and 10, ‘The Battle of the Bastards’ and ‘The Winds of Winter’], were to me one thing.”

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And about all those reports of massive shooting days and incredible numbers of nights on set, Sapochnik seems to confirm it all. Well, actually, he confirms it all, but also explains how the amount of work that went into this Sunday’s Battle of Winterfell is worse than your typical blockbuster film.

“I’ve been working on it since June of 2017,” revealed the filmmaker. “I’m shooting for seven and a half months, which is like 130 days, which is longer than most of the big movies that get made.”

He added, “As usual, the scripts are bigger than what we actually end up making. The process of whittling it down took longer this time. Because [series creators] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] wanted everything. We all want everything but we were up against the reality of what we could achieve in the time we had.”

The end result is a battle that is rumored to be bigger than anything ever committed to film. Maybe not in actual size, but definitely in length. The director says that he watched “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” for inspiration, as that film includes the 40-minute battle sequence that is iconic. That being said, the Battle of Winterfell appears to clock in at over an hour, making ‘Rings’ feel almost quaint.

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“I was trying to get a sense of when do you tire out,” he said about watching ‘Two Towers.’ “I think we’re going to blow past [40 minutes]. It feels like the only way to really approach it properly is take every sequence and ask yourself: ‘Why would I care to keep watching?’”

He continued, “One thing I found is the less action — the less fighting — you can have in a sequence, the better. We also switch genres. There’s suspense and horror and action and drama and we’re not stuck in killing upon killing because then everybody gets desensitized and it doesn’t mean anything.”

Even though Sapochnik says there are multiple genres at play in the upcoming episode, he’s quick to give a catch-all genre, as a basis. “This is survival horror. That’s the whole episode for me,” he revealed.

As mentioned in a recent behind-the-scenes video, the crew of “Game of Thrones” took the time and money to expand on Winterfell, building out what was originally a much smaller set. And in doing so, it gave Sapochnik a lot more leeway on how to shoot the upcoming battle episode.

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“And I was walking around [the Winterfell set] thinking, ‘This is a really cool set. I can find angles I would never have found beforehand,’” he said. “[And] I turned to producers and said, ‘I know it’s 11 weeks of night shoots, I know it’s shitty and going to be cold. I don’t want to do 11 weeks of night shoots and no one else does. But if we don’t we’re going we’re going to lose what makes Game of Thrones cool and that is it feels real — even though it’s supernatural and we have dragons.’”

Honestly, if you read all these quotes and still aren’t impressed by the craftsmanship and the amount of work that went into this Sunday’s episode, then you’re just heartless. Plain and simple. It’s clear that the folks involved in this Battle of Winterfell went above and beyond to make sure fans got what has been promised for almost a decade. Regardless of how the actual episode turns out, we have to hand it to Sapochnik and the rest of the cast and crew for enduring this ridiculous shoot just to give us an hour and twenty minutes of content.

“Game of Thrones” airs this Sunday on HBO.

Here’s the preview: